Hello, and welcome episode 3 of the Worship Band Builder podcast, where we are working with you to lay the foundation for skillful worship! I’m Eric Roberts. I’m joined by my co-host, Emily Roberts.
Today we are going to talk about BEING GRACIOUS WITH YOUR BAND
Remember they are volunteers, not paid professionals.
Volunteers have homes, families, and jobs that must take priority.
Choose pieces that fit your band members’ abilities, rather than your visions of grandeur.
Share the spotlight, and help them shine. Ultimately, the glory belongs to God. He is blessed much more by a humble heart than a powerful performance.
Get 10% off your order in the online store use code: PODCAST www.worshipbanduilder.com
Get one-on-one help from Eric to help you decide what the best next step is for you on your journey to grow your worship ministry in your local church. https://www.worshipbandbuilder.com/get-help
Full Episode Transcript:
Eric:
Hello and welcome to this episode of the worship band builder podcast where we are working with you to lay the foundation for skillful worship. I am Eric Roberts and I'm joined by my cohost, Emily Roberts. Hello, I episode today. Episode three is called gracious sakes. Gracious sakes, man alive. What are we talking about? Today we're going to be talking about being gracious, but before that I got to tell you about my friends at you seminary and they are my friends. I met them about a year ago as they were launching their platform and we helped them. You seminary. It's an online micro certificate program for pastors and anyone who wants to learn more about their faith, you can take our courses even there on new seminary. Dot. Yes, you seminary.org go take a course. You will be blown away. But today we're talking about being gracious with your band. And first of all, remember these people are volunteers,
Emily:
Volunteers. They are not paid employees.
Eric:
Oh, but if they were, how much easier it would be?
Emily:
I don't know that it would be, you'd still have to be kind.
Eric:
Yeah, maybe. But if you were like, if there really are employees in the be here at this time and do this exactly what I'm saying,
Emily:
Well you could fire them if they weren't meeting your expectations, you could have some kind of 90 day quality service.
Eric:
Oh yes, forget auditions. It'll just be 90 day quality survey. And if you don't match, if you don't add up to it, bam, you're out. I'm sure there's a better phrase for that. But yes, most people know what I mean. But here in the notes it says they're not paid professionals, but some of them may be professionals, but they are volunteers. They're not employees. We're here all together doing ministry and we're doing it together for the Lord. Right? For God.
Emily:
You are in charge, but you are not the boss. Don't be bossy, but you are the boss, but you're not the boss. Yeah,
Eric:
So there is a lot that goes into this being gracious, but we're going to come at this from a leader standpoint, like we talked about in our last episode, being a leader. Let's talk about it from that standpoint because if I'm, you know, you do have volunteers, let's assume that we're volunteering and or you could be paid or volunteered, but your, your band is most likely volunteers and they're not employees and not going to come in and be giving them the what is all the time because they'll probably be gone. Right,
Emily:
Exactly. If you want to keep them around, if you have a limited number of musicians and you can't afford to lose any of them, then I, you can't be harsh in your dealings with them.
Eric:
Right. So you should be kind, you should be gracious. You should be it doesn't mean that you can't set rules. I mean, I think that's part of like talked about in episode one about setting a vision
Emily:
Setting expectations more than rules. They never have to do anything that you want them to do. That's what a volunteer is. They're choosing to do what you are asking them, asking them to do.
Eric:
Yeah. But they're also choosing to do something and agreeing to follow a rules.
Emily:
Follow your leadership. Yes. But you have to be a good leader. You know, there are leaders who are not good leaders,
Eric:
Right, but not trying to play the devil's advocate, but if I signed up for the worship team and they said, well, here's the worship team rules, and I said, yeah, I'll, I'll follow that. Then I'm agreeing to a set of rules as a volunteer where we're mutually agreeing.
Emily:
Yes, yes. But I can also, if I agreed to all of that, even if I signed a paper, I could still decide when you come into practice one night and you yell at the whole team that I don't want to do it anymore and it doesn't matter what I signed, I'm walking out.
Eric:
That's true. That's true. As a paid staff member, which I was for many years as a worship pastor, it was much harder because no matter what happened, I had a job to do and I could not just like quit my job and run out the door as a volunteer who is not receiving salary compensation, things like that. There is a lot more power in that as a volunteer saying I'm here because I want to be here. I can give as much as I can, but if I'm not appreciated, guess what I'm out. Yes, that's, that's a, so think of those things as we're talking about being gracious with the band.
Emily:
They need to feel appreciated and maybe that can be intentional things. Maybe that is kind of like we talked about last week. Making sure that we pointed out every time we see or hear something positive, you know, wow, we were really tight on that last song. You guys sounded great. Loved your solo Bob, you know, whatever it is. It might be something like that. You could even have a worship band appreciation day. They seem to have appreciation days for just about everything else. Be intentional about appreciating them and remember that while this is your full time job, it isn't theirs. They have full time jobs, probably somewhere else. And so the time that they are giving to you is precious. It is valuable. They could be doing anything else, but they are choosing to support your ministry.
Eric:
Yeah. And so let's back that up because as you said that I felt a little offended that you would assume that all you know , that that were all full time paid worship leaders like this may not be the worship leaders full time
Emily:
Ok Yes, I stand corrected. Absolutely.
Eric:
It's not necessarily like all worship leaders are full time paid guys who are just you know, beckoning their army of volunteers. Many of many, many worship leaders just are
Emily:
Are volunteers themselves. Yes.
Eric:
And, and that's, that's tough too cause you're volunteering, you're thinking I'm not getting paid. They're going to get paid. So all this stuff about getting paid is just a, it's just all side side thought. But it does change how if you are a full time pastor worship leader and you are there all week, 40, 50 hours a week, you think that everybody else just generally has that much time to give. Like, Hey, why can't you guys be this? Here's one of the things that I, and I've learned this over many years, volunteers have homes, families, jobs that have to take priority in general. Now before I had a home, a family and a child, I was oblivious to this, you know, like literally like I would just ask, people play for me every week. Like, what's wrong with that guy? He can't play every week. Why not? I'm here. I was a young, married a worship pastor with no children and my band were like, you know, middle-aged or you know, maybe a little older than me had two or three kids. I had no idea how hard it is to have children in a home and even to take one night, a week to go, I'm going to go practice with the band for like two or three hours while the wife is at home trying to take care of the kids
Emily:
Or to spend time practicing before you come to practice.
Eric:
Yes. And as a dad, I found that to be extremely difficult to even practice enough for my volunteer at church where I play now just to find the time to squeeze in enough practice so that when I get there, I don't look like a dummy and, and it's really hard. So if you can just re put on those glasses when you're making schedules, when you're talking to the people, when you are expecting, well when you are choosing pieces of music that you know, Oh I've got a couple of weeks and I'm a full time guy, I can practice, but can your drummer come home from work at six o'clock and can you get enough practice in a few weeks to be able to nail that part? So that's part of this on our sheet today. Choose pieces that fit your band members abilities rather than your visions of grand jury.
Emily:
Yes. And this is something that we have talked about before, but you have to work within your limitations. You gotta know what you're good at and, and that's how you're going to put your best foot forward. I have taught piano lessons for many years and my students will come to me regularly with pieces that they can play several measures very easily, no problems. And then there are just a couple of measures where they struggle and I always know where they are because the rest of the song goes by really fast and then they hit those measures and it slows way down so that they can think and try to find their fingering and hit the right notes. Hopefully fingers crossed. And so what I tell them is the trick to making a song sound flawless is you play the whole piece as slow as you need to go to play the hard part. Then it looks like you know what you're doing and you did it on purpose. And the same thing is true with your worship team that you choose songs that make you look like you know what you're doing. You're confident, you're good players because you are picking the right song.
Eric:
Yeah. And this really has nothing to do a song selection, this, this episode, but you just laid out like a huge tip that really makes your band love you and that you're being gracious to them. Like when I've had guys that call me and tell me, you know, come play this song and then they give me the list and I'm like, like, Oh my goodness. Like, like by Sunday I have to play this and it freaks me out the whole week. And you know, even as being an accomplished musician and feeling pretty comfortable with my instrument, I still will like, you know, you'll know like you've been in there a couple hours, like what are you doing? I'm still trying to learn these parts. And so it's just that being gracious to your band is knowing where they are and where, what, what they could realistically do.
Emily:
And if you're going to play a song that you know is particularly challenging, only play one song that is challenging and make sure the rest of them are easy. Like
Eric:
Walk in the park. Like, let's say you're doing, how great is our God and you've done that song like 30,000 times and which we all have. And you know, yeah, it's still pretty popular that some churches may have never even touched that, but those are their songs in your repertoire that you know, everybody knows you could play. Like right now, even with no practice. And this I heard on another thing I was listening to, you know, if you're doing a new song and it's a little bit harder, the other three songs in your set should be easy songs like super easy. So that week there's only one song that you know is going to require a lot of practice. The other ones are easy and it doesn't mean just because it's easy that it's like dumb. Like that's, that's something I struggle with is like if I pick a lot of easy stuff we've done a lot, then that's dumb or like boring or it might be seem boring to you.
Eric:
Like, Oh, I'm just going to pick these easy boring songs. But that's actually the best way to get your band good over time is to, you know, you're there. You know you've got it. Pick it, pick it over, pick it over, pick it over, pick it over until everybody's sick of it and then you can add some new stuff in. But that's, that's, that's true. No, you know, don't, don't try to be, so, I don't know. Try to be so awesome all the time and let yourself breathe because your band is going to have fun with that.
Emily:
Well, you will look more awesome. Choosing songs that the band can play well and easily then choosing challenging songs where they will struggle and fall potentially fall apart.
Eric:
Yeah. If you're in general having that feeling like, did we make it, are we going to make it? Is this going to happen? Is this going to work? Are we going to nail this? If that's what you're thinking on Sunday morning, you need to roll it back a tad and that is being gracious to your band because no band wants to feel. I feel like for me, when I'm training a band, when I'm training my band, when I'm working in my own element, I always want everybody to have a tad bit of uncomfortableness that they're there. They're pushing their selves just a little bit, but then most of the time it's got to feel good. It's got to feel comfortable and you have to gauge that not from not where you feel comfortable, but where everybody else feels comfortable. And so that's, that's really choose pieces that, that fit your band, their abilities rather than even your own abilities.
Eric:
And lastly, and this is tough for all of us, but you're going to have to share the spotlight and you're going to have to let them shine. You know, this isn't about us being awesome or being in the spotlight, but Hey, it is a stage and there are spotlights. So we can't, we can't in most churches now, at least some of you guys may still be in the non spotlight mode, but a lot of churches now look, they got spotlights, they've got stages. If you've got all this stuff going on, looks like a concert. Yeah. And you know the people who are volunteering that aren't being paid, that are, that are practicing, that are really trying hard, don't stick them in the back and like turn the lights off to know nobody can see them and hog all of the front stage. I mean that's just, I'm just really good for you to share that experience with them and let them have that time even though that's not what worship is about.
Emily:
No, it's not about that. But it's also not all about you man. Just because you can sing every single one of those songs and maybe you're even the best singer on the stage, doesn't mean you should sing every one of those songs. Give your other singers a chance to take a line in one of the songs or even lead a whole song. If you can do the lead guitar line, fantastic. But if you've got somebody else there that can do it, maybe thrill aligned their way. You don't have to be center stage all the time and frankly it will be easier on you if you're not.
Eric:
Yeah, that is a hard thing to learn and as we're talking about, and we always talk about building a band, building a stronger band and training people through our programs. We're foundations through the worship band builder website. Listen, there is going to be a time when there's going to be a new vocalist or a new guitar player and they're not going to be as good as you and you're going to have to let them sing the lead or let them start the song. Now that's when you learn to really be a worship band builder, to really be a leader, to really be someone who is creating those moments. Think back to, I can think back to my first band practice days, my first band performances, I mean I won't speak at them on this podcast. I was not a Christian. I was an eighth grade eighth grader, so I won't speak a lot of them on today's podcast, but I guarantee you, you know, after the, the crowd was roaring, you know, this is amazing.
Eric:
Like we were rock stars, right? Oh right, right. That was, that was before Christian stuff. But, but, but the, I forgot my point cause I just went right back to the eighth grade only right back to the eighth grade dance man. We played our first thing. My point was it couldn't have been that good. Trust me. You know what I'm saying? They were like Encore, Encore. And so we played the same song again. But because you only knew what I knew one song, right? I just started playing the guitar. It was like very early in. And my point to you is there's going to be times when somebody's going to need that first time. They're gonna need that first moment, that first start. They're going to need that first solo and it's not going to be as good as your solo. But as you're developing band members, as you're opening spaces, as you're talking, as we're talking to you about your next worship leader, your next drummer is in your Pew.
Eric:
They're going to have to get to the stage somehow. They're going to have to have that first time to play. The more you perform, the easier it gets. But it won't get any easier if you don't have those opportunities. And as a, you start training people and doing this, you're gonna, you're going to notice spaces where they don't seem like they think they're ready, but I think they're ready. And so you're going to push them just a little bit. So this is just about sharing the spotlight, but also pushing people into the spotlight. Oh yeah. Push people don't yet push them into the spotlight. Turn on their mic, turn everybody's off and let them stand up there. You know, it just, it just goes it is hard for, for you as a performer to maybe think, well, they're not quite ready, but they're never going to get ready unless they have those times where they can, they can learn and get ready.
Eric:
You get ready in a lot of different ways, but there's nothing like standing in front of an audience and being, knowing that your next song is you, that only you can only develop that by doing it. Right? That's right. Yeah. I mean, you can only develop that confidence by just like your hand shaking your voice, just quivering and then over a microphone. Yeah. I mean, in my first piano recitals in college, you know, I w it was the worst feeling. And, and I was, I was into my major and you know, you go up to play your piano piece and your fingers are just like shivering, you know, on the piano keys, it's, there's nothing like that. You have to overcome that over time. So not just share the spotlight with those people that want to shine, but you know, no one, it's time to kind of push those new, new musicians.
Emily:
Well, so really if we're talking about being gracious to your team you're more than a leader. You're almost like a coach because you're encouraging their growth in this way.
Eric:
Right? You are a coach. Yeah. You're a coach. A leader, a team, a trainer, and when they do it and it sounds just okay, tell him it sounded amazing because it's going to get a little better every time. And that's what I love about what we're doing in this new phase in the podcast and worship and builder is we're opening up giving you guys a chance to helping you open up the stage to new people and through foundations and the courses that we have there. You can take anybody out of the Pew and put them, put them in our courses for a couple months and they come out on the other side as a drummer or as a bass player or as a new singer or when they say, I'd really want to do the drums. You're like, here's the path to that. Cause it's a, it's a path.
Eric:
It's not just going to happen. You're a part of that path for them as a leader, as you're being gracious to them, training is probably the most important thing that you can do for them. Helping them, giving them that opening and you know, really changing their life because worship training changed my life. Being trained by my mentors changed my life. It put me on a whole different path. I never would've got up and led worship had my mentors not given me those chances. Like, Hey, we think you're pretty good at this. Would you try to lead this next song? And it took a little bit of time, but that's what we're doing and we'd love to talk to you about doing it with your team if wherever you are you're always going to have to train whether you have, you know, five campuses and thousands of people or whether you're just a small church of like under a hundred people, 50 people, you need to train those people to come around you. And if you're still listening today to this podcast, we know you have a heart to do that. So you can go to the worship band, builder.com, worship band, builder.com. You can also save 10% when you use podcast. Or if you just don't know what's right for you next. But you want to do it, just click on get help.
Emily:
You know, those guys came into your life, your mentors back then, and they took that role as coach and they guided you and it wasn't very long before, they weren't just your coaches. Now you were a valuable team member alongside them and then eventually you even moved into a position of leadership with them. Well that's just so exciting for me to think about all of the that are sitting out
Eric:
There that have the potential to become those new team members and maybe somewhere down the road worship leaders, right? And it's all right here. It's all happening. You know, starts right there in your mind. It starts in your mind and you just gotta put, you know, just got to put your feet down and just start, just start running towards it. You know, we have some tools for you. We would love to talk to you and help you navigate that and really see ministry grow. And that's what this is all about. So drop us a line, let us know what you think. Make sure you like Sharon subscribed to the video, the podcast, wherever you listening to on iTunes or whatever thing that you have on your phone or on YouTube, you can check this out if you're just listening. Did you know that you can actually see us in our studio, on our YouTube channel? Go to that YouTube channel too, and then we will be waving to you and doing this every week. We'll be here, so God bless you guys. Thanks for listening today and just do a real quick favor and share it.
Speaker 3:
[Inaudible].